"SARAH FISHER TAYLOR" from Footprints
Bio provided by author:
At the outset of "Footprints" in 1997, rookie policewoman Sarah Fisher was embarking on a romance with higher-ranking officer Brent Taylor. Her jealousy over witnessing a kiss between Brent and her sister, Molly, led Sarah into talking Brent into an elopement -- and set the stage for the unraveling of a complex woman battling some very deep-seated wounds. Sarah's jealousy of the friendship between her husband and sister led her to drag Brent to New York for work, and later it drove her into seducing Matt Gray, whom she had worked to exonerate from bogus charges. When she became pregnant, she chose to let everyone believe the child was Brent's, hoping that the beginnings of a family would repair their rocky union. The truth about baby Victoria's paternity came out shortly after her birth -- thanks to Sarah herself, who resented Matt's implications that she was using the child as a last resort to keep Brent from leaving her for Molly. Sarah and Matt have formed a strange bond out of their initial attraction as they work to raise their daughter together; meanwhile, Sarah has clung desperately to her marriage. Recent events indicate that this battle has much more to do with Molly than it does with Brent, such as when Sarah took great pleasure in making her family realize "good girl" Molly's feelings for Brent, and when she felt like a fifth wheel in her family yet again in the aftermath of her brother's death. Her tendency to make poor decisions is clearly rooted in her feelings of isolation from the family and the resentment she has developed towards Molly as a result of this. It looks to be a long road to happiness for this tormented young woman as she must finally face the failure of her marriage and the reasons behind it.
SCENE #1:
Submitted scene -- from Episode #201:
"Come on, Molly!" Sarah repeats, her voice hard and coming through gritted teeth. "Admit it! Admit you're in love with my husband!"
Molly just stares at Sarah, not saying anything. Sarah refuses to break eye contact with her older sister. She tries to read Molly's face and is sure she can see victory for herself in there somewhere -- Come on, Molly ...
"Stop it!" Brent interrupts. "Leave Molly alone."
"Shut up," Sarah snaps. "You wouldn't realize what she was up to if she hit you over the head with a billboard announcing it. She's got you wrapped around her finger, just like she wants."
Brent hesitates a moment before he says, "I told you to stop it, Sarah."
"And I told you to back off. I asked Molly a question and I want an answer!"
Finally Molly speaks, though it is as tentatively as possible. "Sarah, you have to understand--"
"I understand perfectly. You're completely head over heels for my husband and you've been waiting for the day you could snatch him up for yourself. I understand, Molly -- I just want to hear you say it!"
"This is insane, Sarah! You're acting like a crazy woman!" Brent cuts in, forcefully.
"Maybe," Sarah says, her words coming out in heavy breaths now. "Maybe I'm completely off my rocker. But I think we all know who shoved me off of it, don't we?"
Brent grabs her roughly by the shoulders. "This is not about Molly! This is about you and me!"
"This is completely about Molly! She's the reason this all happened!"
Brent shakes his head. "No--"
"Yes!" Sarah jerks out of his grip. "I know exactly what's going on, Brent! I know. I have since day one."
"You don't know anything!"
"You're wrong! I know plenty -- like the fact that you and Molly kissed the night we got married!"
A chill surges through the room. Sarah can see it shooting through both Brent and Molly, shocking them into silence. She feels it herself, a current of disbelief sweeping over her. For more than three years, she's kept that to herself. She's felt it clawing at her mind every time she even thought of Molly or Brent, felt it scratching to get out. And now it is."Betcha didn't see that one coming, did you?" she says finally, a hint of triumphance shining through.
"Sarah--" Molly says, a note of panic sounding prominently in her words. "If only you'd told us that before--we could have explained. It wasn't an ongoing thing. It just happened that night, we just--I'm sorry."
"It's a little late for sorry," Sarah muses as she begins to pace back and forth. "And I don't think you would have told me the truth, even if I had spoken up. Because that would have ruined your little game, Molly. If you'd told the full truth -- that you want Brent, that you've been trying this whole time to take him away from me -- then you never would have been able to have him."
"That's not what I'm doing."
Sarah suddenly stops moving and throws up her arms. "There you go again with the lying! Stop it, already! Just tell me the truth. You want Brent, don't you?" When Molly doesn't respond, Sarah repeats, even more furiously, "Don't you?"
Molly folds her arms in front of her body. Words are twitching on her lips, almost ready to let loose, but they are in conflict and neither set can win out.
"Just admit it already!" Sarah cries. "This is all your fault!"
There is another moment of frozen intensity until Brent cuts in. "No, it's not!"
Sarah turns sharply to him. "Stay out of this!"
"No!" Brent shouts. "I won't! I can't! Because you're wrong -- this isn't Molly's fault!"
"Yes, it is!" Sarah fires.
"No, it's not! Because it's mine! I'm the one who has feelings for her!"